Trapping my gaze, Tom smiled and said, “Have you seen Sienna’s ring?”
I gritted my teeth and shot daggers at him, my heart jumping to my throat.
Don’t you dare.
His smile widened. Watch me.
“Isn’t it lovely?” Tom lifted my right ring finger and showed it to Arval. “But it’s on the wrong hand, don’t you think?”
A stunned hush fell over those who were watching and listening, followed by an eruption of questions from all sides.
“Sienna, are you and Tom engaged?”
“Why did you arrive separately?”
“When is the wedding?
Arval blinked at us, clearly surprised, but then quickly recovered, addressing his question to me. “Are you two making an announcement?”
As I held Tom’s smirking gaze, frantic questions being haphazardly thrown in my direction, something in me shifted.
I was mad, and I’d been mad since Jethro had left my trailer yesterday.
I was mad at Tom, obviously. He was a douchenozzle.
But I was also angry with myself. If I’d brought Jethro, if I’d followed Cletus’s wise words of owning our shit and facing the music, then everything about this moment would have been different. I wouldn’t be standing here feeling like a fraud.
Yes, there would be fallout. Yes, I might lose a few film roles. Some doors might shut, but did I really want to walk through those doors?
If Jethro had been standing next to me, the road would’ve been rocky, but at least we would be facing it together. And I would have been true to myself.
For the first time in my career, I felt like a coward. I felt like a sellout. And I hated it.
In that moment, Jethro’s words, spoken with such love, came back to me: “Now, part of my hate is because I don’t want to lie to folks. But the other part is selfish. I’m in love with you, and the idea of us being a secret makes me want to break something.”
I wanted to break something.
First, Tom’s nose.
Second, each and every preconceived notion about who I was. I was ready to be free.
Decision made, I held Tom’s gaze and gave him a brilliant smile. “It is on the wrong hand. Thank you for pointing that out.”
His eyes widened with surprise and interest, clearly he was curious what I was up to.
Very carefully, I slipped Jethro’s grandmother’s ring—my engagement ring—off my right hand and placed the ring where it belonged. Then I turned it to the crowd of cameras in front of me, holding it up as though I were flipping them off with my ring finger instead of the middle one.
“I’m engaged to be married. My fiancé couldn’t make it today. He’s too busy humanely trapping gigantic black bears and setting them free in the wild. I can’t wait for you all to meet him. His name is Jethro Winston, and he’s a wildlife park ranger in Tennessee. We’re completely in love, and we’ll be getting married in the fall, when the leaves change.”
I grinned, my heart swelling with the rightness of the moment. I turned to Arval to see if he had any more questions, but he just stared at me, his mouth hanging open. I didn’t see Tom’s expression because I wasn’t looking at him. I didn’t care whether he was angry or putting on a show. It didn’t matter. What Tom thought didn’t matter.
Because, as Jethro had said, it’s good to care about what others think, but only when those other people matter.
CHAPTER 34
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
― Norman Cousins
~Jethro~
“Are you drinking that stinky coffee again?” I wrinkled my nose at Cletus, inspecting the paper bag and coffee mug he’d brought inside my truck because I smelled something rank.
“No. I only have one cup of my special brew a day.”
“Then what smells bad?”
“Garbage.”
I squinted at my brother. “Garbage?”
“Yes. Garbage smells bad. So does sulfur. And poop.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes. “I meant, why does it smell bad in here? What is in that bag?”
“You didn’t ask why it smelled bad in here, you asked what smells bad. How was I supposed to know you didn’t just want a list of things that smelled bad?”
Glaring out the windshield, I had to bite my tongue before I snapped at my brother. He was being surly on purpose.
We were driving home for the day, but first we had to stop by the Piggly Wiggly and grab a few things. I’d trapped five bears, more than usual, and was exhausted. After driving them up The Parkway to the release grounds, I’d turned back around and picked up Cletus from the set.
He’d been rude from the get-go. But really, he’d been in a bad mood since seeing grandma’s ring on Sienna’s finger. The only thing for it was to ignore him.